


Prompt 1 (Reiner)

by Yoselin



Series: L&L Tumblr Prompts [1]
Category: Love & Legends (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 20:07:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13131177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yoselin/pseuds/Yoselin
Summary: Originally posted to Tumblr.“Reiner's MC dies giving birth, but the baby lives and is healty.”





	Prompt 1 (Reiner)

The swishing of someone’s skirts behind him made Reiner turn. Ishara had entered the room without him noticing. Her face was somber yet gentle at the same time.   
“Your Majesty, I was sure the door was locked. It isn’t polite to force it open,” he warned. His voice came out harsher than what he had wanted, an inappropriate way to address the Queen of another nation, yet he didn’t seem to care.   
After what had happened last week...nothing mattered.   
The thought of the events of last week made something deep within him hurt again. Reiner turned away from Ishara and clenched his hand against the chair he rested. His eyes closed in pain and he tried forcing himself to remember something else. Anything else-  
Just not that. Not that memory of his wife laying down on a bed with blood surrounding her and the doctors speaking in hushed tones-  
A hand was placed on his shoulder and Reiner jumped. Ishara.   
“Reiner, I am sorry I forced the door open, but you did not answer when I knocked. I worry for you here, locked up in your room without eating or sleeping. Ryland says you made him leave yesterday when he inquired as to why your bed was still made and your food untouched,” she whispered.   
“Ryland should keep his mouth shut,” Reiner growled out.   
His eyes were furious for a moment before they cooled. Something in him had snapped long ago and now he could not bring himself to remain in any emotion besides pain for more than a few moments.   
Ishara watched him carefully before settling down on an armchair opposite of him. Her fingers reached out for his hand and she took it in hers. There was something so maternal in that gesture that Reiner almost allowed himself to feel comforted for half a second before moving his hand away.   
Her touch, although comforting, was patronizing to him. He did not need pity or consoling from anyone regardless of what the others thought. Despite everything that had happened, he was not weak.   
“Is there a reason you’re here? Or are you just wasting time in between responsibilities?” He inquired.   
Again, there was that warning bell that Ishara should not be addressed in such an inappropriate way, yet the Queen did not seem to mind his callousness. In fact, her eyes softened all the more for it.   
“I came to ask if you wanted to see your daughter. She’s a lovely child, Reiner, and she misses her father. Iseul tried holding her yesterday and she reached out and tugged on his hair so harshly that he had to pass her on to Altea. She’s a spirited child already, and she often makes the other Retainers smile-“  
“Thank you, your Majesty, but I do not wish to head to the nursery today. Tell Ryland and Solaire to continue watching over her in my stead,” Reiner closed his eyes.   
His dismissal was evident, yet Ishara made no attempt to move. Her eyes softened another fraction and she moved forward.   
“Then perhaps we can take a walk through the grounds? Some fresh air may do you some good, and I recall how much you adored pacing through your gardens,” she suggested.   
Reiner made a noise at the back of his throat and turned away.   
The gardens had been his wife’s favorite place to roam. After she had defeated the Witch Queen, she often paced about the grounds to relax. Even when she was pregnant and the doctors had asked for her to remain in bed rest, she had paced about the flowers and plants because she felt at ease outside-  
“If not the garden, then how about accompanying me to the office? Your piano has not been touched in a while, and I think playing may do you some good. How about it?” Ishara extended her hand.   
For a moment, a crazy moment, Reiner almost took it. Playing his piano had always eased his worries and soothed him-  
Yet he had also played piano with his wife. They had spent countless hours playing melodies and duets that had once been impossible without the other.   
Now, where once his piano filled him with joy, he wished to never lay his eyes on the thing again. Perhaps he should have Ryland toss it out...  
“No thank you, your Majesty, I still have more paperwork to attend to,” Reiner moved his hand to reveal the stacks of papers next to him.   
Ishara’s eyes widened and she reached out to measure a stack. “You continue to work despite everything? I thought I told Ryland and Solaire to let you rest.”  
“You did,” Reiner ground out, “yet they listen to my orders alone. A Lord can not be taken from his duty despite whatever happens in his personal life-“  
“ ‘Whatever happens in his personal life?’ Reiner, your wife died in childbirth. That is not a simple event anyone can come back from unscathed. No one is expecting you to continue on as if nothing had happened. You have already lost so much in life, your parents, Aldric, and now her-“  
Reiner stood and moved away from her. His fingers pressed to his temple where a headache was beginning. The lack of sleep and eating had begun to take a toll on him a long time ago, yet he imagined he could still continue on. If only Ishara and the rest of the world would just go away and leave him be.   
“You will leave me alone after I leave this room?” He didn’t turn around.   
“It will ease some of my worries, yes,” Ishara replied. Her skirts rustled as she stood and walked over to the door.   
“Then I will walk on my daily rounds to humor you. After this, I expect to be left alone,” he opened the door.   
Ishara opened her mouth to say something, thought better of it, then nodded. “As you wish.”  
Together, they left the room. 

The castle was quiet as they walked. Servants and knights acknowledged their presence before scurrying away at the sight of Reiner. Reiner could not imagine why until he caught sight of his reflection on a passing window.   
He looked like a skeleton with his bloodshot eyes and sunken cheeks. The sight of him was enough to startle.  
“Where are the retainers?” Reiner asked. His fingers moved to his cheeks as if to shield them from view. He really looked terrible, and his wife would worry if she saw him-  
Yet she was no longer here to fuss.   
Another ache took hold of him and he was glad Ishara was speaking if only for a distraction.   
“My son and the others are in the dining hall for the time being. Perhaps you should join them and eat.”   
It was not a question, Reiner could tell, yet he rejected the idea all the same. “I am not hungry. I will speak to the retainers then return to my room. And you will leave me alone until you depart back to the capital.”  
Ishara’s lips thinned before inclining her head in a nod. “If you wish.”  
They continued on. 

Arriving at the dining hall, Reiner began to feel like something was amiss. The hall was unusually quiet and he could see the retainers surrounding someone.   
Giving Ishara a questioning look, he moved closer to see what had happened. His mouth opened in greeting before it promptly shut again.   
Solaire sat in between the crowd with something small and swaddled in pink in her arms. The others crowded around her and gazed at it with wonder.   
Something cold and livid enveloped Reiner for a moment and he spun around on Ishara.   
“You knew they had her here! You brought me here on purpose!” His fists clenched and he began moving past her.   
Ishara stopped him with a look of warning and concern.   
“Your daughter needs her father, Reiner. It is not her fault. One does not ask to be born nor can they choose the consequence of such birth. Will you at least hold her? Ease all of our minds by naming her? She has endured days without a name. We grow tired of calling her ‘little one’. “  
Reiner pinched the bridge of his nose. He was aware that the other retainers had spotted him. They looked startled at the sight of him, yet Solaire still rose from her seat. She moved slowly with the baby in hand and was almost halfway to him before Reiner moved away.   
“I-it hurts to see it-her eyes are like-“ Reiner suddenly felt like he was suffocating. “Just... just name it something and leave me alone.”  
With that, he hurried out of the hall leaving Ishara and Solaire to tend to the infant. 

That night, without meaning to, he had dozed off. The paperwork on his lap had slid from grasp and he had fallen into the embrace of sleep.   
The dreams he had were not pleasant.   
Over and over again, he saw his wife on that bed with her eyes open and unblinking. Heard the doctors’ hushed whispers as they decided on what to tell him, and heard himself arguing with Ishara and the others. Angrily asking why the best of magic and medicine had been unable to keep his wife alive.   
Mercifully, however, the nightmare only lasted moments. Afterwords, peaceful dreams entertained him. Dreams of the ball celebrating the Witch Queen’s defeat, dreams of his wedding with his wife at his side, dreams of her unexpected announcement that she was with child-  
And then dreams of his daughter.   
Dreams of holding her and hearing her laughter. Dreams of a mischievous little thing with bows in her hair and an infectious smile that would run around him while he was working and would play piano as well as her mother.   
It was this last dream that jolted him awake. His breath came out in shallow pants and he clenched his head in his hands as another headache formed.   
Something had seized him mid-dream. A desire to go somewhere and move. A desire to see someone.   
Realizing that he could not ignore this urge, Reiner stood. His papers spilled out of his lap and into a disorganized heap but he did not care. The desire to leave his room was too powerful to resist. 

As he paced through the castle, Reiner was surprised to find that he was not moving towards the exit. He had thought he would visit his wife’s grave, yet his body kept him moving through more hallways and doors.   
It wasn’t until he rounded a corner and saw the unmarked door that he realized where his mind had taken him.   
The nursery door greeted him and seemed to beckon him in.   
Reiner froze and tried to turn back, however, the same desire that had roused him from sleep was now forbidding him from leaving.   
His body began to move of its own accord and he reached for the handle of the door.   
At the back of his mind, he heard Ishara’s voice again. Her speech in the dining hall about the child needing her father.   
Something in him ached at the thought, but this was not grief. Rather, this was more potent and strong. A desire to protect and safe keep overtook him-paternal instincts no doubt-and he pushed the door open. 

The nursery was quiet at night time. A lone candle illuminated the room. Reiner saw the crib before he saw the figure slumped next to it.   
Within the crib was a tiny infant wrapped in pink and dozing peacefully. Next to her, Ryland slept in an uncomfortable position. No doubt he had been the child’s primary caretaker since her birth.   
Reiner made to approach the child silently, but a creaky floorboard made Ryland jump. There was a moment of disorientment and panic where Ryland dove for a dagger next to him as if to protect the child from an intruder, before his eyes came into focus and he recognized Reiner.   
Immediately, he stood and dusted himself off. Even in the candlelight, Reiner could see the relief and shock in his eyes.   
“My Lord! Have you come to see her?” Ryland inquired.   
Reiner was silent for a moment before placing his hands on the bars of the crib. The small girl within it did not move at the noise. Her little mouth continued to breathe evenly, and Reiner felt something spread through him.   
That same bizarre instinct that had seized him from sleep now took hold of him again. His fingers reached to touch the child, fix her blankets, before he caught himself and withdrew his hand.   
“Ryland, would you perhaps bring me some tea or something to eat?” Reiner asked.   
Ryland opened his mouth in surprise and utter relief before nodding. He moved to the door before stopping.   
“Shall I deliver it to your room or here?”  
The question was a loaded one. Reiner could feel the emotions and worry packed into it. A test to see if he would finally brave meeting his daughter.   
He turned his gaze back to the sleeping girl and something softened in his gaze. Finally, after a week of mourning, he felt at ease.   
“Here, Ryland, please,” he answered.   
A huge smile overtook Ryland and he hurried out the door promising to return at once.   
Reiner paid no mind to his exit as he sat down next to the crib.   
The room was quiet for a pause before Reiner reached out for the crib again. As if sensing her father nearby, the child moved slightly in slumber. Reiner held his breath in worry until the baby eased again and continued to sleep.   
He leaned his forehead against the wooden bars and closed his eyes.   
“It’s not your fault, is it? What happened to your mother is not on you,” he whispered.   
He wasn’t sure why he was speaking, the infant certainly couldn’t understand him, yet voicing his thoughts out loud gave him some peace of mind.   
“I hesitated before coming here for so long because I was afraid. I was afraid that if I saw you, I would see your mother and grow cold towards you. I almost made the mistake of blaming you for something outside of your power. Will you forgive me?”  
No answer.   
Reiner hummed at the back of his throat and pressed his forehead harshly against the bars. He licked his lips and continued again.   
“I have loved you and anticipated your arrival since the day your mother told me you were coming. We had so many names picked out that I could never truly choose one. Your mother was supposed to have the final say, but she...”  
She died.   
The words went unsaid, yet another prickle of pain went through him. Oddly enough, this one was less intense than the rest. It was as if being close to the child eased some of his grief.   
Reiner continued on.   
“Ishara says you need a name, and I know she is right. I just...I draw a blank when I think of what to name you. I could name you after your mother, but I feel I would be making you carry the weight of a legacy. I could name you after a family member, but you would bear the name of someone long gone. So I do not know what to name you. I told Ishara to pick something out for you, but that is not fair, is it? You deserve something well thought out and picked. Your birth is not something that you asked for, and I am not the only one that lost something. You lost your mother, and you almost lost me to my grief as well. I’m sorry.”  
His fingers tightened against the bars.   
“But now you have me. I-my grief is strong-it will never truly go away, but I feel at peace by your side. Your mother once said you were a gift, and perhaps she was right. I hesitated coming here for so long, yet now that I am here I wonder why. Being here brings me immense peace and serenity. I think, I think this entire time I needed to come here. I think I was waiting for this moment without realizing it,” he whispered.   
Moving away, he adjusted his position next to the crib. His head rested on his arm and he could feel something in him changing. His grief was still there, Reiner felt it with every breath he took, yet there was something new blooming. It was soft, emotional, and peaceful. Gazing at his daughter made it stronger.   
Something powerful was seizing him, and Reiner no longer felt afraid.   
For the first time in days, he felt at ease with the world.   
“I think I’ve picked a name for you,” he murmured.   
Already, he could feel sleep beginning to embrace him. Not sleeping for days was finally catching up to him, yet the welcomed this now. Sleeping next to his daughter made it easier and peaceful-  
“Peace. I think I’ll name you Peace. You were born from the resolution of a bloody war, and you make me feel so at ease next to you. I think your mother would approve of it. Don’t you?”  
It became harder to stay awake. Reiner closed his eyes and placed his hand on the bars of the crib protectively.   
“Goodnight, Peace. Your father will watch over you now, I promise.”  
With those last words, Reiner allowed sleep to take him.


End file.
